16/11: 95 travellers in distress in the Central Med, fate unknown.

17.11.2021 / 19:20 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_16-CM629

Situation: 95 travellers in urgent distress in the Central Med, Alarm Phone unable to find out what happened to the boat.

Status of WTM Investigation: fate unknown

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Tuesday the 16th of November 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 95 travellers, including 13 women and seven children. The travellers had left from Al Khoms, Libya, the same morning at around 01.00 CET on a blue wooden boat. We managed to reach the travellers who told us that they needed urgent assistance and that none of them were wearing life jackets. We also got their GPS position, and forwarded all information we had to all relevant rescue authorities. At 18.18 CET the travellers told us that waves were getting really high and that water was entering their boat. After this, we lost contact to the travellers. Throughout the night and the following day we continuously tried to get information from the so-called Libyan coastguard about operations in the area, but were not able to find out what had happened to the travellers. Unfortunately, we don’t know if they made it to shore or not. We will update this report, if we are able to find out the fate of this boat.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans